At every general election the state BN coalition has always turned out to be the “kingmaker”. This is according to SUPP president Dr Sim Kui Hian, who made this observation during a press conference in Kuching yesterday.

However, Sarawak DAP’s Dr Kelvin Yii (above) in a press conference today retorted: “Dr Sim is right when he made this claim yesterday, but I would like to add on to his claim, that BN Sarawak has always been ‘king-makers and kings’ but the state coalition had remained powerless all these years and only subservient to its Umno masters in Putrajaya.”

“And this at the expense of Sarawak as a state, and Sarawakians as a people,” said Yii.

He also pointed out that by making such a statement, Sim is ignorant of past records and is in fact, admitting the state BN coalition’s “weakness” that as king-makers and kings they were never able to influence decisions even with the huge majority of 25 seats out of the 31 seats currently.

“This is a majority win of 81 percent,” added Yii.

“But what’s more, Sarawak also has six full ministers and three assistant ministers in Putrajaya’s cabinet,” Yii said.

He said the best way to judge the state BN coalition’s “kingly status” is to examine the passing of the numerous laws that are detrimental to the Sarawak, although the state had full support and full power:

“As we can see from past evidence, even when they had full support or even the numbers to make the difference to uphold the interest of Sarawakians, they did not do so and just went along with the wishes of Putrajaya.

“While we believe in the concept of a “strong Sarawak” that will only happen if our leaders are willing to uphold our rights and willing to speak out for us. But based on history and track record, SUPP and BN Sarawak have failed the people miserable,” Yii said.